Known image forming apparatuses are configured to form images on recording media, such as sheets of paper, by causing a recording material, such as toner, to adhere to the recording media by an electrophotographic method. In such image forming apparatuses, images are thermally fixed onto the recording media. When the recording material is toner, thermal fixing causes toner to melt and adhere to the recording medium, so that the image can be formed with stability.
In the image forming apparatuses that perform thermal fixing in this manner, it is proposed to cool a recording medium after thermal fixing by blowing air. For example, in an image forming apparatus that performs duplex printing, it is proposed that air be blown to cool the recording medium after thermal fixing.
However, in the above image forming apparatus, the recording medium that has been fed near the output tray and is fed back is subjected to air almost vertically with respect to a direction where the recording medium is fed back to cool the recording medium, and then an image is formed on a second surface of the recording medium. Unless the recording medium is cooled immediately after thermal fixing, moisture of the recording medium may evaporate by heat to dry the recording medium, and image quality may differ between the first surface and the second surface of the recording medium.
However, when air is blown to the recording medium almost vertically with respect to the sheet feeding direction, if cooling is performed immediately after the recording medium passes through the fixing device that performs thermal fixing, air may also flow to the fixing device, which may interfere with thermal fixing of the image.